rhetorical

rhe·tor·i·cal

adj \ri-ˈtȯr-i-kəl, -ˈtär-\

Definition of RHETORICAL

1

a : of, relating to, or concerned with rhetoric b : employed for rhetorical effect; especially : asked merely for effect with no answer expected <a rhetorical question>

2

a : given to rhetoric : grandiloquent b : verbal

— rhe·tor·i·cal·ly \-i-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

Variants of RHETORICAL

rhe·tor·i·cal also rhe·tor·ic \ri-ˈtȯr-ik, -ˈtär-\

Examples of RHETORICAL

1. My question was rhetorical. I wasn't really expecting an answer.
2. <you can skip over the rhetorical passages and still get the gist of the essay>
3. McKinney made her name in Georgia politics as a rhetorical bomb-thrower. Colleagues in the statehouse dubbed her “Hanoi Cynthia” after a 1991 speech denouncing the Persian Gulf War. —Bill Turque, Newsweek, 29 Nov. 1993
4. Clinton's acceptance speech evidenced some of the classical rhetorical devices such as paronomasia, or punning, and anaphora, or repetition of key words or phrases. —Leo McManus, English Today, October 1993
5. “Take that river down there, for instance. It conforms pretty much to the map, doesn't it?” I assumed he was asking a rhetorical question and kept my mouth shut. —Marshall Harrison, A Lonely Kind of War, 1989
6. … he [Thomas Wolfe] crammed his novels with lavish apostrophes to Life and Death and Loneliness and Sorrow, covering page after page with grandiose rhetorical flourishes … , pseudo-Homeric epithets … , wooden dialogue and pious homilies about “the brevity of our days.” —James Atlas, New York Times Book Review, 2 Dec. 1979

Origin of RHETORICAL

(see rhetoric)

First Known Use: 15th century

Related to RHETORICAL

Synonyms: bombastic, flatulent, fustian, gaseous, gassy, grandiloquent, oratorical, orotund, windy

Antonyms: unrhetorical

Related Words: bloated, elevated, florid, flowery, grandiose, highfalutin (also hifalutin), high-flown, high-sounding, inflated, lofty, ornate, pompous, pontifical, pretentious, stilted, tumid, turgid; overdone, verbose, wordy

Near Antonyms: eloquent, well-spoken; bald, direct, matter-of-fact, plain, plainspoken, simple, stark, straightforward, unadorned, unaffected, unpretentious

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Other Grammar and Linguistics Terms

ablaut, allusion, anacoluthon, diacritic, gerund, idiom, infinitive, metaphor, semiotics, simile

Rhymes with RHETORICAL

historical